THE LOST MORMON TREASURE
"THE WORD MORMON STANDS INDEPENDENT OF THE LEARNING AND WISDOM OF THIS
GENERATION"--Joseph Smith 1843
A GIFT TO TODAY’S GENERATION OF MORMONS: THE LEARNING
AND WISDOM PROPHESIED BY JOSEPH SMITH IN 1843
CONCERNING THE MEANING OF THE WORD MORMON.

Foreword by Tsiysa Sagonigei (Cherokee: Blueotter) known to the L.D.S. Church
as Elder-of-record William S. Anderson, Tribe of Benjamin, and LDS
self-convert in 1977 at age 22. Earned a Bachelor's degree in Youth
Leadership from B.Y.U., Class of 1979. Executive with the Boy Scouts of
America between 1979 and 1981. Former early morning Seminary Instructor
at the center stake of Zion in Independence, Missouri in
1982-3. Graduate of The LDS Church Education System's
Professional
Teacher Development Program in 1984. I chose not to teach released time
seminary as a full time professional, because the behavior of LDS youth
at Murray High School in 1984 was just as atrocious as the
pre-delinquent youths I taught at Father Flanagan's Boystown near
Omaha, Nebraska as a Family Living
Instructor between 1981-2.

"Our hope lies with the Indians" and "The Indians will yet save us,"
and
"When they come, I fear that we will only follow them." Brigham Young

The Church under Condemnation - Treated Lightly the Book of Mormon
President Ezra Taft Benson

"My beloved brethren and sisters, for some years now I have been deeply
concerned that we are not using the Book of Mormon as God intends. As I
participated in the Mexico City Temple dedication, I received the
distinct impression that God is not pleased with our neglect of the
Book of Mormon. In the eighty-fourth section of the Doctrine and
Covenants, the Lord decreed that the whole Church was under
condemnation, even all the children of Zion, because of the way they
treated the Book of Mormon. "And they shall remain under this
condemnation until they repent," said the Lord, "and remember the new
covenant, even the Book of Mormon" (D&C 84:57). Zion cannot
fully arise and put on her beautiful garments if she is under this
condemnation. (See D&C 82:14).

Condemnation Upon the LDS People Has Never Been Lifted

In
the year 1832, just two years after the time when the LDS Church was
established, a scourge and condemnation was placed upon the current LDS
people for their disobedience to the Lord. This curse and pending
judgement has never been lifted:

"And your minds in times past
have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated
lightly the things you have received— Which vanity and unbelief have
brought the whole church under condemnation. And this condemnation
resteth upon the children of Zion, even all. And they shall remain
under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new
covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I
have given them, not only to say, but to do according to that which I
have written— That they may bring forth fruit meet for their Father's
kingdom; otherwise there remaineth a scourge and judgment to be poured
out upon the children of Zion. For shall the children of the kingdom
pollute my holy land? Verily, I say unto you, Nay." (Doctrine and
Covenants | Section 84:54 _ 59)

The church was not even three
years old when in January, 1833, it became necessary for the Nauvoo
High Council to issue a solemn epistle of warning from the Prophet
Joseph to the wayward Saints, regarding their poor attitude toward the
restored gospel, and of the great danger of the Church losing its
promises:

"There is one clause in Brother Joseph’s letter which
you may not understand; that is this: If the people in Zion did not
repent, the Lord will seek another place, and ANOTHER PEOPLE.’ Zion is
the place where the temple will be built, and the people gathered, but
all the people upon that Holy Land being under condemnation, the Lord
will cut them off, if they repent not, and bring ANOTHER RACE upon it
that will serve Him. The Lord will seek another place to bring forth
and prepare His word to go forth to the nations." History of the
Church, 1:320

Joseph
Smith and the church's twelve apostles also stated in a Proclamation to
all of the Emperors, Kings, Princes, and heads of state in the world at
the time that "The poor degraded son of the forest "(Indians) would
someday "Stand up in majesty."

Joseph Smith, who founded the LDS and RLDS churches, told the
Latter-day Saints they were "identified with the Gentiles."

The
title page of 1830 Book of Mormon specifically categorizes the people
of the world into three categories, the Lamanites (American Indians),
Jews, and Gentiles. Although Joseph Smith and others who established
the church are members of the House of Israel, and the church has
members of that lineage today, known as the descendants of Ephraim, the
present LDS church is referred to in the scriptures as the Gentiles, as
Gentiles make up the primary membership of the church today.

Joseph
Smith also affirmed the distinction in his dedicatory prayer (Doctrine
and Covenants 109, verse 60) of the Kirtland Temple: “...us, who are
identified with the Gentiles.” This is a very important delineation
necessary for interpreting the Book of Mormon prophecies such as 3
Nephi, Chapter 16.

Brigham Young, who
succeeded Joseph Smith warned
the Mormons that "Our hope lies with the Indians" and "The Indians will
yet save us," and "When they come, I fear that we will only follow
them." Brigham Young at the Provo, Utah Bowery
Conference in 1867 Brethren, this Church will be led onto the very
brink of hell by the leaders of this people. Then God will raise the
one mighty and strong spoken of in the 85th Section of the Doctrine and
Covenants, to save and redeem this church.

Are Mormons "Israel?"

The
"Lost Tribes" of Israel migrated to Northern Europe after their
apostasy from the Sinai Covenant 2730 years ago as of October, 2008,
when the "decree" against them, as prophecied by Ezekiel, was lifted.

Most of the
Tribe of Benjamin previously escaped because of the wrath of
the
other 11 tribes in the incident of the rape of a Hebrew woman by
non-Hebrews -- which Benjamin steadfastly refused to avenge
because of friendship and commercial ties with the rapist's tribal
relatives. According to Rabbi Michael Shelomo Bar-Ron, 1/2 of
Benjamites left on Phoenician boats... and
traveled to Scandinavia, The British Isles and to a smaller extent
elsewhere in Europe. Except for a remnant of Benjamite men, 600 men
from
one village - all Benjamites who stayed in Israel were put to death by
the other 11 tribes. The first 2 Kings
of Israel descended from some of these 600 men.

Regardless of
all this ancient apostasy, Lost Israel (among them Mormons) may
ethically, under current rabbinical "Halacha" may lay claim to tribal
identity as members of the Tribes of Israel through their biological
fathers, but lack Sinai covenental recognition from God through their
biological mothers.

Mormons were the first non-Jewish group to lay claim to being "Lost
Israel," fulfilling long-held Hebrews Prophecies.

Today,
there is a movement among other non-Jewish Christians who are keenly
aware of this fact, which call themselves "Joes" as opposed to "Jews."

In
the Book of Mormon, a resurrected Jesus Christ leveled prophetic
charges of FUTURE iniquity among members of his L.D.S. church in the
last days -- prophesying in these words:

"At that day when the
Gentiles shall sin against my gospel...and shall be filled with all
manner of lying, and of deceit, and of mischiefs, and all manner of
hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret
abominations..." (3 Nephi 16:10)

Book of Mormon Believers, we invite
you to take Brigham Young's advice and "...become identified with the
Lamanites". Just as Father Abraham tent flap was always left open in
case a stranger walked by and he welcomed all,
and just as Ancient Israel did from the time of King David down to this
day, we as Cherokee have always adopt
God-fearing "strangers" into a special priestly clan, The AniKilohi, or
"People Like Unto Lehi" and we treat them
like family.

In 1843, Joseph
Smith
wrote in Times and Seasons, a Mormon publication; below is an accurate
extraction:

“Through the medium
of
your paper, I wish to correct an error among
men. . . . The error I speak of is the definition of the word "MORMON."
It has been stated that this word was derived from the Greek morme.
This is not the case. There was no Greek or Latin upon the plates from
which I, through the grace of God, translated the Book of Mormon. Let
the language of that book speak for itself. On the 523d page of the
fourth edition it reads: "And now behold we have written this record
according to our knowledge in the characters which are called among us
the Reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according
to our manner of speech; and if our plates had been sufficiently large,
we should have written in Hebrew, but the Hebrew hath been altered by
us, also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold ye would have
had no imperfection in our record, but the Lord knoweth the things
which we have written, and also, that none other people knoweth our
language; therefore he hath Mormon stands independent of the learning
and wisdom of this generation.

Before I give a
definition, however, to
the word, let me say that the Bible in its prepared means for the
interpretation thereof." Here then the subject is put to silence, for
"none other people knoweth our language," therefore the Lord, and not
man, had to interpret, after the people were all dead. . . . I may
safely say that the word's widest sense means good."

A Mormon Treasure Revealed

(Photo -
Left)
Mayan carving showing Turban with blond mustache & freckled
cheekbones supporting Mayan legends of a people who came from the East
who worshiped but one God.

"That none other
people
knoweth our language", Joseph Smith was correct, for only the
descendants of Nephi's family with his Hebrew followers, and Laman's
family with their Hebrew followers, and the Native American (ancestors
of the Cherokee) racial admixture, which joined or intermarried with
the followers of Laman, the "CHA LA'AN GEE", which means, "THE PEOPLE
OF THE HIGH MOUNTAIN VALLEY,WHO WERE LEAD BY GOD'S SHEPHERD, FROM THE
TABERNACLE OF THE CAVE IN THE ROCK ON HIGH") knew that language that
Joseph Smith translated. Then, in time, with their spiritual growth
from the Ancient Word of God and its priest educational system, they
became, long after Laman's death, the "CHA RA GEE" which means, THE
PEOPLE OF THE HIGH MOUNTAIN VALLEY, WHO WERE THE PEOPLE SHEPHERDED BY
GOD FROM THE TABERNACLE OF THE CAVE ON HIGH, would also know "our
language". Nephi's language typically was the Hebrew and Egyptian mix
of their times, and Laman's language was the same mix of Hebrew and
Egyptian, which was at first adapted as a religious language of the
Cherokee and then became a part of their general language, even to the
point that they described themselves to outsiders, (for example,
Mormon, Baptist, etc.) as "Cha la'an gee", which refers to them as
being followers of La'an or, in English, Laman, just as Mormons are
followers of Mormon. Cha la'an gee is the name of a religious category
only, and serves as proof that the ancestors of the R speaking
Cherokees were the people who merged with the followers of Laman as we
became identified by his name as proof of Laman's involvement with the
ancestors of the Cherokee. Joseph Smith was also correct that, after
"all of the people were dead", the Lord would be the only source for
any meaning of what Mormon means. “The Lamanites” is not the pure name
or phrase that is Hebrew (with Egyptian roots, as that was normal and
typical of Hebrew speech of 2,600 years ago, who had been living in
Egypt) but the admixture of Native American people and the descendants
of the reformed admixture tribe of Laman, are not dead.

The Actual Meaning of the Word Mormon

The Cherokee R
language
(Hebrew) speakers are the Native Americans who have been, beyond any
reasonable question, empirically documented as speaking Hebrew and are
not all dead, yet. Yes, we are a minority among Cherokee, but because
we had never been captured, we still know what is true, as do the
elders of the Kit tu wah Cherokees who last had possession of the ark.
Among the general Cherokee populations who lost the religion of the R
(Hebrew) speakers, except for very rare family stories, they only know
what the government and western European Christianity has taught them,
and 95% of that is from other tribal animal-based deity religions or
influences. We believe we have the same Hebrew roots as Mormons,
because we understand what your names mean and how they are pronounced,
and we have physical evidence to prove such. We know our stories are
factual and have been independently documented for over 340 years. We
have heard of the Mormon history, of a Hebrew people who came to the
Americas; it is true and we have the evidence, which is their Hebrew
language itself. We believe that this is also true: that a shared
ancient Mormon treasure has been found, which is "THE ACTUAL MEANING OF
THE WORD MORMON" , with the revealing of hundreds of pages of ancient
Hebrew/Cherokee documentation by The Cherokee Nation of Sequoyah, with
a church which practices the ancient Hebrew religion of the God of
Abraham Yo he waah. Our proof is that we have the English writing,
which is several hundreds of years old itself, of five different
English authors who did not know each other but did live with the
remaining Cherokee who still spoke the religious Hebrew language with
an R in it , which is no longer spoken by today's United States
captured Cherokees.

Our scrolls were
written
by the actual non-Cherokee witnesses that experienced the actual
ancient religious ceremonies brought from Judea, with ancient Hebrew
from before the time of Christ. These authors of the hand written
manuscripts saw the actual religion of the Hebrews practiced in America
from 1690 to 1825; they heard and transcribed by hand this proof of the
Mormon connection to the Hebrew people from the ancient times, when
they first came to the Americas. We Cherokees are the proof that
Hebrews came from the salt water to us, as the Hebrew words for that
very phrase still exist, even in today's Cherokee language, along with
many, many other Hebrew words. These precious manuscripts, authored by
five different English speaking people, are now guarded and secure in
several famous American libraries.

Treasure Shared

After 2,600 years,
the
most precious lost possession and physical proof of the existence of
the ancient Hebrews who crossed the Atlantic Ocean and came to the
Americas has been rediscovered, and (properly, in light of its Hebrew
in Cherokee usage) translated: not by the Mormons, who have the best
language experts in America, even though all Mormons are the rightful,
original co-owners of this great treasure. It was discovered by those
who the Mormons stereotypically would call the "Lamanites", for our
actual identity is the Cherokee Nation of Sequoyah.

It is important that
I
explain who we are and what we call ourselves, so that you will
understand how we know what your noble "Mormon" name means. Our common
modern name in English is the word Cherokee; the correct modern
pronunciation is CHA LA GEE, which in ancient times was Cha la'an gee,
which means in Cherokee and Hebrew, the people of a high valley who
were led by La'an, God's shepherd (Laman), who worshiped in the
tabernacle high in the middle of the mountain. To break down this
ancient name "cha la'an gee", the Cha syllable in our name is Hebrew
and Cherokee (yet it is also found in Indo-European Hittite, from the
Middle East) and is the first syllable for the word Cha-pel or in
English "chapel"; however, Cha in Cherokee, Mayan, and Hebrew means a
tabernacle in an opening or cleft in a high rock or cave, where a
tabernacle or chapel is constructed to be hidden, identical to the ways
of ancient tribes of Israel and Judea. The middle syllable is "La'an",
(pronounced lawn), which a Mormon would pronounce as Laman in English;
however, when the Hebrew name was first taught to us, as being the
Hebrew Lam'an, we had no "M" sound in our Cherokee language, so we
dropped it, thus our pronunciation was La'an. The name in Hebrew means
God's Shepherd. The last syllable, "GEE", in our name is Cherokee,
Hebrew and Guaymi (a neighboring tribe from the area where the Hebrews
and Cherokees merged one tribe with the other); all of these peoples
use the word GEE for valley, specifically a high valley.

Treasure Almost Lost

(Photo -
Left)
An 1839 painting showing Mexican Cherokees at leisure.

The modern Cherokee
word
for ourselves is Cha la gee, and an American Cherokee will tell you
that it means people of the caves and ridges and mountains, and that it
comes from another language; they assume it comes from Choctaw, however
the Choctaw learned who we were from us, as we brought the ancient
Hebrew religion to them, and they too were recorded in the middle
1700's worshiping in Hebrew. They possessed about thirty percent of the
Hebrew we utilized in our religious services. The (Hebrew) "R" speaking
Cherokees' descendants are scattered in the southern United States, and
mostly between Texas and the narrowest point in Panama, where the two
oceans almost touch. In 1720, twenty-five percent of our people left in
exodus from the United States; these were those Cherokees who had an
"R" in their language and Hebrew throughout their religion. They called
themselves "Cha ra gee"; the "Ra" syllable in their name did not mean
La'an (Laman), the Shepherd of God, as the original Cherokee/Hebrew
"Cha la'an gee" the tribe lead by La'an or Laman called themselves,
because they had naturally changed their name after his death.

Under the tutelage
of the
Hebrew Priests of the tribe of Laman, this racial admixture tribe
evolved properly in compliance with the teachings God, as these were
well-taught Hebrew Priest families, and as they were following the most
ancient instructions from the Hebrew God, Yo He Waah, given directly to
the first priest families which were the Cherokee/Hebrew priest class
operational in the Americas, and were known as the "Ani Kutani"
(priests for the people who came to tabernacle) with "kuta" which is
found in Egyptian and Hebrew and used in Cherokee, but, originally was
a word adopted by the Hebrews along with hundreds of other Egyptian
words (including the Egyptian word Moses) from their time in Egypt. The
Ku ta, or in ancient Hebrew/Egyptian, is Ta ku, is a special
undergarment worn so that strict physical modesty was present always in
the worship and presence of Yo he waah. The "Ra" middle syllable
replaced the original La'an middle syllable, as this was the correct
transition in compliance with Hebrew/Jewish structure.

The modern Cherokee,
who
do not speak any words with R in them, are generally descended from
those people who were from the northern three quarters of the
population area and are the Cherokees who did not fully practice the
ancient religion of the Hebrews. We were like most complex societies,
with various religions coming and going with immigration surges from
the coastal Native American people first ravaged by the plagues of
European diseases in the 1500’s. However, the majority of these Hebrew
admixture descendants, being the R speakers, were devout religious
practitioners of the ancient Hebrew faith. About 5,000 people from the
tribe of La'an, the Cha ra gee, left their fellow Cherokees, Cha la
gee, and went on exodus, leaving those who practiced the new religion
of animal-deity worship, with its images and idolatry, and the
approaching Europeans from the east. Ra, the middle syllable in their
name, meant those "Shepherded by God", as the "R" speakers, of the
Cherokee were the speakers of the ancient Hebrew religion, the same
religion that the Cha La'an Gee of 2,600 BC practiced. These are the
Cherokees who spoke Hebrew in their religious services. They saw the
conflict coming with Western European Christianity and left, not unlike
the Mormons. This is the main reason why the Mormon language
researchers did not discover that the actual Lamanites are still among
them, and we know who Laman was and still is to us: a man of acceptance
of his fellow man of a different race.

This exodus of 1720
is 100
years before the Mormon revelations that were recorded by Joseph Smith;
by that time the Cha ra gee, "R" speakers of the ancient Hebrew
religion, were strung out over 2,000 miles, for as people got old, we
would, family by family, cease exodus and stay in a place until the
elders went on to be with Yo he waah; then we would move on.

Sequoyah read a letter
(which arrived in The Cherokee Nation that is known today as the THE WAHNENAUHI MANUSCRIPT) from
Lake
Chapala, Mexico where some of the families
had stopped for a few years, confirming that these "R" Hebrew speakers
were still in exodus; they had gone on to the south, where the first
word of the Hebrew God of Abraham was given to us. This southern exodus
was not over mountains; you don't cross mountains when you are going
south, you travel the same direction that the mountains are running.
Our people were like the Mormons; they went away from European
Christianity because of its incompatibility with our chosen religions.

These Cherokees, the
Cha
ra gee, seeking to be closer to the word of God and the earth of God,
went back to from where they came, where the two oceans nearly meet, in
the valley of the mountains of the moon, where the word of Yo hee waah,
the God of Abraham, was brought to them from on high, in this
alpine-climate valley, by the people who came from the salt water with
the word of God which in Cherokee/Hebrew is "Mo resh mon", which means
"Mo" (from the saltwater) "Resh" (a leader of man came) "Mon"(and a
multitude cried out for his leadership); the English pronunciation of
this word is Mormon. However, the Hebrews who first stepped off the
boat on to the shores of the Americas would not know, when you said you
were a Mormon, exactly what you were saying, because the key to how it
is pronounced and more importantly its noble meaning, the key is in the
Cherokee/Hebrew/Egyptian language. The reason that the Cherokee
language is important is that, due to our conversion to their Hebrew
religion, we absorbed these Hebrew words and phrases into our language
because it describes what we saw and what we learned as we changed and
grew into becoming "the principal people". We developed the usage of
not only "R” but the "M" sound also. Moroni, for example, in our
language is "Mo resh oni". What it means is broken down here for you to
understand: specifically, the first syllable "Mo" means "from the salt
water" in Cherokee, and just "water" from Hebrew via Egyptian, (as in
fresh water), just as the name Moses is a reference to water. We
Cherokees were describing what we saw. The second syllable "Resh" means
"a leader of man", from ancient Hebrew originally, and in Cherokee the
R sound as is found in Cha ra gee, after our mutual integration of
tribes. The third syllable "Oni" means, in Cherokee "from a time
ancient, came forth", and in Hebrew (who got such word/syllable from
the Egyptians) means "came forth, a gift". So Hebrew, Egyptian, and
Cherokee all have the same meanings for these words that are from the
ancient people of renown who crossed the salt water and came to the
Americas.

It is very important
that
Mormons be understanding of the importance of these key words, so that
they will automatically become more compassionate toward Joseph Smith,
and understand the reason why Mr. Joseph Smith had problems in 1843 in
explaining what these names "Mormon" and "Moroni" actually meant. It is
not difficult to understand that words describing the Mormon religion
and its early Hebrew priest missionaries, who were establishing a time
and place for the Mormon religion, were unclear when translated to
English; their names are a mixture of Hebrew/Egyptian and, as we were
taught by the priests of the tribe of La'an (Laman) to our Native
American ancestors, the "R" speaking Cherokee/Hebrew "Principle
People". I believe we are the key to understanding these august names.
We very much respect Joseph Smith's honesty by not making up something.
There was no way for him to know the exact meaning of Mormon or Moroni,
as it may not have been spoken audibly to him; there is no way he could
have known, for he stated that he copied his revelations from written
material.

(Photo -
Left)
Mr. Ridge was very typical of Cherokees with European admixture.

As an outsider, a
non-Mormon, I rationally believe him, as it makes perfect sense that he
did not know how to pronounce such names and know their exact meaning;
that would, of course, be only normal, correct common sense. To any
reader of any material, the unexplained foreign word continues to be
unexplained, other than it is a name. It was and would have still been
completely obscured from anyone, unless they were from those people who
had learned, directly from our experience of knowing the same Hebrew
priests who came to the Americas, as we Native Americans did not go to
Judea. Our ancestors' experience gives us the comparison of our
languages, which is necessary to understand who they were and where
they came from. If Joseph Smith had spoken this rare admixture of
Hebrew, Egyptian, and Cherokee, he would have known how to explain to
the Mormon people what the name Mormon meant and what the name Moroni
meant (not to be confused with what they both did, which Joseph Smith
had explained), but simply what their names mean, and more importantly
how we know this. While I have never read the book of Mormon, I did
read an explanation by Joseph Smith in a Mormon magazine printed in
1843, and his anguish in being unsuccessful in trying to explain to the
Mormons the meaning Mormon, of "mo resh mon", and Moroni, "mo resh
oni", is apparent. This anguish is seen when Joseph Smith wrote in
Times and Seasons, a Mormon publication in 1843. Joseph Smith's
absolute sincere frustration is very evident, but, to me it is an
indicator of his honesty. For under such immense pressure of how his
difficulty to explain looks improper, combined with the outside world's
criticism of the entire Mormon religion, the average person would have
made up something obscure or popular and he did not do that; he instead
chose to stand by what he had read.

Joseph Smith Was Honest

You of the Mormon
faith
who are reading this should admire Joseph Smith for not caving in to
immense public pressure from within and without the Mormon kingdom, and
he is right in saying that it would not be known in his generation what
these words meant, for there was no way to know until now. This is not
only Cherokee property, as we are the descendants of those Cherokees
who were of the combined tribe of La'an, or as you would say Lamanites.
Truly, I believe this present day revealing to Mormons is something we
have known from the beginning. It is intended as an act of friendship
that we return to you any knowledge we have about you. I cannot speak
as to why Joseph Smith said that his generation would not know, but he
was correct. And now you are the Mormon generation who does know what
the words mean; you are among the first of all Mormons to understand
what the actual translation of these noble names mean.

What you believe or
wish
to do with this information is your private affair. I personally felt
sorry for Joseph Smith who was finally bewildered by how it looked, but
I also was impressed by his solidness when extremely embarrassed and
frustrated at not having the answers to what was obviously not going to
be answered in his time, or as he said "in their generation". Mr. Smith
was obviously aware that an explanation was beyond his ability for some
reason, and this did not shake his faith in the work that he had done;
he was bothered, but not in doubt about his faith. Showing an awkward
response which is an absolute sign that a man is living up to his
responsibility of due diligence within the truthful parameters that he
had to follow, Joseph Smith said (even though it made him look less
knowledgeable) that Mormons were not to worry--that the names meant
something good. And we Cherokees who practice the ancient religion of
Yo hee wah agree; it does mean something good, something very good.

(Photo -
Right)
Many Mayan carvings suggest racial mixtures.

Mr. Joseph Smith was
correct, Mormon means (as it has to be read backwards, because it's
Hebrew) "a multitude of people cry out for a leader of man to come from
the saltwater to us), and Moroni means (remember, we have to read this
from right to left) "a gift to us from a long time ago came a leader of
man from the salt water". For our readers general information, I would
like to explain what our Cherokee name for ourselves is--that name we
call ourselves when we are among ourselves is "the principal people",
which in Cherokee is "ani yun wi yah", and as we believe we were
created by God, Yo he waah, "the principal people" becomes "the chosen
people", which is the name of the people of renown who came from the
saltwater speaking Hebrew and bringing the word of God.

Joseph Smith was
right, it
is very good. We thank God for La'an and the word of God that he
brought to us, and from his acceptance of us we reciprocated, and
together our peoples went forth into the future, as human beings bound
to each other by our belief in Yo he wah. We taught many other tribes
the ancient words of God and many still have in their language words of
Hebrew/Egyptian and even Cherokee words. The Guaymi word for church is
a Cherokee word, Ka tu wah, and the word koin (pronounced Cohen) in
Guaymi has three meanings-- sacred food, sacred person, and heaven.
There are many, many Native American tribes with the remnants of their
contact with the Cherokees, as we are "the Principle People", the main
vein of the Hebrew language speakers in the Native Americans. We have
publications going back to the 1600's with Hebrew that had not been
spoken in its ancient form anywhere else since 500 BC.

That the Cherokees
spoke
Hebrew is documented by non-Cherokee authors who happened to be present
during their religious worship services is an unimpeachable fact. The
most thorough of the English writers to have witnessed the Cherokee and
their extensive use of Hebrew, was an Englishman named Adair. In the
early 1700s, he lived among the Cherokee for 35 years and wrote
hundreds of pages of Hebrew usage in the Cherokee religion; this
should, in any non-prejudicial consideration, be empirical proof that
this could only result from a close association such as that of living
within a tribal group of Hebrew speakers. The other fact is that the
Hebrew spoken and recorded in 1692-1825 had not existed in usage among
Jewish practitioners since before the time of Christ, and therefore had
to have come to the Americas, for Native Americans obviously did not go
to the Holy Land, where Judaism was practiced. Adair witnessed hundreds
of Cherokees praying in Hebrew with formulized worshiping services led
by a priest. Even before Adair, there was an Englishman called Beltran;
he also wrote of the Cherokees and their use of Hebrew in 1690. After
Adair came and wrote a manuscript that was to become a book several
hundred pages long, came Mr. Payne, whose manuscript is also hundreds
of pages long, even though in 1825 he had been reduced to only having a
dozen or so partial-Hebrew speakers available to him.

The Hebrew that is
contained in the manuscripts that are in very prominent libraries here
in the United States is from a time 600 years before the beginning of
the Christian era. In modern Judaism, the name of God is Yo he vah,
which they cannot speak, except in very strict situations, and is a
sign of their respect for God. However, in ancient Hebrew, the very
first Hebrew understanding of the name of God, in the beginning, was
"YHWH", the pronunciation of which is unknown in our modern times.
After this first most ancient history of contact from God to the chosen
people, some 1,500 to 2,500 years later, the ancient Hebrews placed
vowels between the consonants, giving us the oldest known pronounceable
name of God, which is "Yo He Waah", the word which was in use from 900
BC to 300 BC, where, with the advent of messianic religious competition
within the Jewish faith, the name was then changed to protect the
original sacred name, Yo he waah, to even more variations like Yahweh,
Jehovah, and Elohim. The Cherokees obviously had the Hebrew that was
brought from the salt water at approximately that same time, as the
Christian Bible does not reference this oldest name but usually uses in
its Old Testament the newer, modified name Jehovah.

This Is A Gift to Mormons

(Photo -
Left)
The Cherokee Indian with the knives is at Fort Sill in 1904 when
Geronimo was a prisoner there. He is Joe Howard Layton, grandfather of
Chief Rogers, son of Mary Price.

The Cherokee Nation
of
Sequoyah’s reason for the sharing of this hard evidence with people of
the Mormon faith is that we feel that Mormons ethically have an
ownership interest of this information also. For we Cherokees believe
that whatever true is true, and whatever true is from Yo he waah; it is
our belief that you should not go to sleep at the end of the day while
in possession of property that belongs, even partially, to someone else
without notifying them that you have what appears to be their property.
Mormons have an historical interest in this joint informational
property; at least, in this case, they have a right to hear the truth,
as we Cherokees apparently are the only tangible proof of the coming of
a Hebrew tribe to the Americas, and we Cherokees and several of the
other civilized tribes have an ancient legend of the brothers who
divided authority, with one brother and his tribe of followers
co-joining our tribe. We are sure that this occurred, because where or
how else could we have known ancient Hebrew, 1,200 years older than the
first recorded European visit to the Americas? Why would our homeland,
the Valley of the Mountains of the Moon, where we became principal
people and where the two oceans nearly meet be called by the
surrounding Native American tribes by the very same word that is our
very same tribal name, with both Hebrew and Cherokee being the same
phrase and meaning the same? And why is that place described in the
book of Mormon, where a significant battle took place? If that is not
the place, and we did not merge tribes with Hebrew speakers, then our
name would be strictly a Native American language dialect word or
phrase, and yet it is Hebrew and Cherokee. Common sense dictates that
we Cherokee did not, by the thousands, learn Hebrew and practice
Judaism out of an overactive imagination; we are the principal people
who worship Yo hee waah, and we have a documented body of literature
that evidences the concrete fact that James Adair and other
non-Cherokees witnessed and documented in their hand-written
manuscripts. Mr. Adair later, in 1775, printed his in his book.

James Adair was not
only
aware but awed by the respect given by the Cherokee to the set-apart
name of Yo he waah, which they used for prayer or religious song. He
said that it was also used in day to day conversation by the Cherokee,
as well as the Choctaw and many other Native American tribes.

Common Beliefs of the Principle People
(Cherokees)

Adair observed that
the
Native Americans did practice the ancient Hebrew religion.

James Adair and Mr.
Cotton
Mather of Boston both wrote extraordinary letters to Europe informing
the Royal Society in London, England of the existence in America of a
tribe of Indians which “performed circumcision."

Mr. Adair declared
in his
letter to King George of England, that “the Jewish situation of them
not having a homeland can be solved, as there are Jewish Indians who I
believe to be a lost tribe of Israel living in the mountains here.
Israel should be established here.”

The various Cherokee
nations honor the seventh day of each week. Four and seven are sacred
numbers to Cherokees (the fourth commandment brought by Moses
sanctifies the seventh day).

(Photo -
Right)
The priest house, was built in 6 days for worship on the seventh day,
as a CHA kee too wah, a tabernacle in the wilderness.

The Cherokees
designed
their priest houses for worship so that “their backs are to the east,
and faces to the west". This is modeled after "the Jerusalem Copy".

"They do not pay the
least
perceivable adoration to any images or dead persons; neither to the
celestial luminaries, nor evil spirits, nor any created being
whatsoever. They are utter strangers to all the gestures practiced by
the pagans in their religious rites."

"It is plain that
where
the Indians have not been corrupted by foreigners, their customs and
religious worship are nearly alike; and also that every different
tribe, or nation of Indians uses such divine proper names as awesome
sounds, such as Yah-Wah-He-to-vah being transpositions of the divine
essential name, as the northern Indians often repeat in their religious
songs with dances. (The sound of Yah-wah jarred in the ear of Adair’s
friend Laudon; he called it Java, in resemblance to the Syriac and
Greek method of expressing the tetragrammaton, which Galatinus imposed
upon us, calling it Jehovah, as opposed to the original importation of
Yohewah.") (Many Cherokees still call their Creator "Yo wa", as
non-priests were permitted, by omitting the "he" or the core, being
"wisdom of God", but continuing to personally use that name in
religious discussions, but using the more formal name "Yo he waah" in
formal religious worship. That name in ancient Cherokee times was
permitted to be said without that person having the station of a
priest, who could say Yo hee wah, whereas the parishioner was
restricted out of respect to use Yo wa, which is "Yo" the spirit of the
soul of God and "Wa" the love or way of God. An English phrase that
might best describe the Cherokee phrase (as it is not a word) is "soul
and heart".)

"The Germans among
them
(merchant traders), frequently say "Yah-yah" as an affirmative; they
call them Yah-yah Algeh--"those of the blasphemous speech”, which
strongly hints to us that they still retained a glimpse of the third
moral command delivered at Sinai."

They "observed a
weekly
Sabbath" which is the same day which the Jewish religion observed.

They "observed a
year of
Jubilee.”

They had three
cities of
refuge. They spoke and sang the phrase "Ha le lu yah" in their
religious prayer songs while in dance.

When they went to
war,
they always carried their "sacred ark" with them.

They rejoiced "at
the
appearance of the new moon", and to this day, our current year is 5773
identical to the Hebrew faith.

Our Priests wore
special
undergarments in their religious practices.

We Are the Principle People

(Photo -
Left)
Cherokee Chief John Jolly as depicted by George Catlin

The Cherokee Nation
of
Sequoyah is descended from a group of Cherokees who followed the
inspirational teachings of the great Cherokee educator Sequoyah, who
urged Native Americans to leave the eastern United States and go to the
western lands of Texas and Mexico seeking freedom, and to find the
ancient R speaking Cherokees who were his ancestors, and who originally
had lived in Georgia, South Carolina, and parts of Tennessee. In 1720,
5,000 Cherokee R speakers, who practiced the religion of the God of
Abraham, Yo He Waah, left what is now the United States. They had to
leave 500 plus Cherokee/ Hebrews "R" speakers behind, as families could
not be split up, and these were left without sufficient priests to
continue the ancient religion; then the northern Cherokee populations
which practice several Native American religions came more into power
in the vacuum left by the exodus of the majority of priest families.
Within 100 years, the group of partial Hebrew speakers was reduced to
15 or so who would admit such publicly.

There are no R
speakers in
the United States in any Cherokee tribe that was captured by the US
government and persuaded to go into the Western European Christian
churches; they have but little knowledge of their priceless legacy, as
they descended from the Cherokee speakers who mostly did not have the
letter R in their language (and Hebrew requires the letter R; you
cannot have the word Mormon or in Hebrew, Mo resh Mon, without it.) I
find it very similar, the path that both of our people have taken, and
I do not demand, but simply wish for your honest and voluntary
friendship with us, the people you call the Lamanites, as a gift of
heartfelt kindness in return for this information; but it is our
responsibility, not yours, to return any ethical property rights of
yours to you; you cannot owe us anything.

That is the Cha la'n
gee
way. I know that we have different views concerning the two brothers,
but try to see it from our point of view: La'an accepted us, and his
younger brother did not, as is his God given right of free will. One
tribe saw us as being unworthy, the other saw us as being worthy. What
we Cherokees should be concerned with today, however, is that there
have been changes in both of our peoples and Lamanites are readily
acceptable in your church. As you can tell, I'm not a Mormon, but
neither am I anti-Mormon. I have not read the book of Mormon; I would
like to someday, when I get time. Because I am documenting our book and
our teachings, I have not had time. But I will say this about Mormons:
I've known a great many, from regular members to bishops, and they are
an impressive people--wholesome is the best description I have.

(Photo -
Right)
Principle Chief Charles Kingfisher Rogers who is descended from one of
the many families that taught stewardship to their boys and girls to be
chiefs and Cherokee, (Cha La'an Gee) Priests.

I am currently
awaiting a
response from the honorable President of the Mormon Church to see if we
can begin discussions in order to explore our common religious
heritage, with both groups having received the ancient Old Testament
word of God. The new Mormon Testament was to come to the Americas
through the same bloodline as did the ancient Hebrew religion from
those Hebrews who crossed the Atlantic Ocean. I hope to make friends
and progress a relationship built upon a common understanding of the
background that we share, and both know in our hearts to be true, as to
our genuine origin. Never has there been a time in Cherokee history
when we thought we were not equal to anyone; that has not changed, and
anything less will not be accepted, as we will always look forward to
extending first the hand of friendship, with full respect and courtesy
to any person. That was and is the way of "the Principle People" as
demonstrated to us by La'an and his followers, and which was taught to
La’an (Laman) by God (Yo he waah)-- to be kind to strangers.

I very much hope
that this
pleases the Mormons who read this, for their critics are many and the
evidence herein presented by myself to you and your families is
physically substantial, reasonable, and common sensed; there is so much
more that I could not have covered in 200 pages of Internet. It may
have been in front of many Mormon researchers, I do not know. Yet it
seems that it has not been see able by these researchers because it is
coming from, as Mormons like to say, "Lamanite" sources. Perhaps after
reading who we are and what we have, they will reconsider, because now
surely they understand that we are "the principal people" from the
Hebrew tribe of Abraham, from Judea, and lead by La'an, Laman, who came
to the Americas, just as your book tells of such.

Our migration
legend,
which was documented before your book was first printed, tells the same
story of the journey and the landing of the Hebrew vessels coming to
our shores here in the Americas. We Cherokees have hundreds and
hundreds of pages of documentation of our early usage of Hebrew in our
religious practices; we also had the ancient Hebrew laws that existed
before the New Testament and the Mormon Testament. We Cherokees, as do
some of the other civilized tribes, have the story of the division of
power between the brothers; this was changed as various Native American
religions came and went within these other Native American tribes that
had been exposed to a much lesser degree to the Hebrew teachings of the
people from the salt water. However, we Cherokees married into these
people and vice a versa, thus even after our 1720 Hebrew speakers had
gone on exodus, back to where they had received the first word in the
valley of the mountains of the moon from the people of the saltwater,
an area which is called Cariqui in Spanish, or Cha la gi in Choctaw, or
Chiriqui in Guaymi, or Cha ra gee, from the ancient Hebrew; it all
means the same thing: a chapel in a cave in the rock for the people
shepherded by God, in a valley on high. We hope you pray with us that
the office of the President of the Mormon Church decides to allow us to
come and reason together, as we have petitioned and as is being
considered.

Friendship Offered

May God bless all
people
of good hearts and goodwill and their families who have come to this
gift and proof that Mormon means that which Joseph Smith described as
"something good". I hope this has been beneficial and something good to
the Mormons and their families who have read this. As God has blessed
all people with their humanity and the earth, we Cherokees ask for
nothing else; but we are obligated to return another person’s property
when we find it, even if it is connected to our property. We would hope
that you would look at our commonality the way we do; that we both
started out sharing a spring up high on the mountain at its source.
Later, Joseph Smith was to discover a continuance of this pure spring
and at the confluence of this with other pure springs which joined that
flow from which Mormons partake. For someone to question the origins of
the legitimacy of your pure spring would question the legitimacy of the
origin of both of our joint springs. We would of course defend that.